Informational marker



Il III I I I llllll H. D. CLAY, SR

INFORMATIONAL MARKER led June '7, 1962 s ,2 1 6 Q INVENTOR. 1

. HENRY D.CLAY, SR

" Agent United States Patent i 3,238,855 INFORMATIONAL MARKER Henry D. Clay, Sn, Marietta, Ga, assignor to Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Filed June 7, 1962, Ser. No. 200,834 2 Claims. (CI. 94-15) This invention relates to ground level markings for floors, and more particularly to ground level inlaid markings for block floors.

Heretofore informational markings on streets or floors have been formed by painting or adhering lettering on the traveled surface, which is undesirable since paints that dry fast enough not to hamper the flow of traffic soil quickly and soon wear off and the various types of adhesive markings are subject to substantial wear. Further, individual wooden blocks as found in factory floors, for example, have been capped so as to form informational markers. This method has been found to be undesirable, however, because such blocks have joints between them and collect dirt and trash so as to disfigure and make somewhat illegible the informational signs formed therewith. Also, because of their small surface area, they are easily chipped rendering them further illegible. Further, the wooden blocks forming a factory floor must be rearranged from time to time to replace worn out blocks or to permit the rearrangement of machinery. Each time such a move is made a costly repainting of markers, or removal and replacement, or installation of numerous capped markers must be effected at considerable expense and time loss.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide unitary informational markers which may be inlaid in a fioor.

Another object of this invention is to provide unitary letters having an upper colored surface for inlaying in block floors wherein the dimensions of the letters are multiples of the dimensions of the blocks forming the floor.

Still another object of this invention is to provide, in a plurality of removable blocks forming a floor, informational letters having dimensions which are multiples of the dimensions of the blocks inlaid in the floor by substituting the letters for certain of the floor blocks.

A further object of this invention is to provide a uni tary informational marker having a color impregnated fibrous glass surface which may be inlaid in a wooden block factory floor.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a unitary informational marker adapted to be inlaid in a block floor wherein the body of the marker is composed of a strong and resilient plywood material capped on one side by an extremely wearable, tough, and resilient color impregnated fibrous glass material.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of a floor having an inlaid infor-mational marker in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention; and

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the informational marker of FIGURE 1.

Generally stated, a preferred embodiment of this invention comprises at least one tough, resilient, and wearable unitary informational marker element for inlaying among blacks forming a factory floor, the informational marker having dimensions which are multiples of the dimensions of the blocks.

More specifically, there is shown in FIGURE 1 a floor comprising a plurality of blocks 5 which may be wood, for example. The blocks 5 are each dimensioned such that the length of their long sides 5a are substantially a multiple of the length of their short sides 5b and are placed on a foundation substantially in juxtaposition with one another so as to form a traveled surface. An informational marker 6 having a thickness substantially the same as the thickness of the blocks 5, which is designated for purposes of illustration as being an S, is inlaid among the floor blocks with its top surface flush with respect to the floor block-s.

All dimensions of the marker 6 are multiples of the dimensions of the blocks 5, and the marker may therefore be easily installed in the floor simply by removing and rearranging certain of the floor blocks. For example, the marker 6 is inlaid in the floor simply by removing the floor blocks from the position shown in dotted line in FIGURE 1 and inserting the marker into the space formed by their removal. The informational marker is preferably mounted in a mastic to prevent its movement when traveled upon. The mastic also serves the function of building up and leveling any irregularity in the support structure for the marker, thus permitting precise emplacement of the marker with its top surface flush with the surrounding blocks.

The exemplified informational marker 6 is shown in detail in FIGURE 2 and comprises a strong and resilient, laminated plywood base portion 60 to which a tough, extremely wearable, and resilient fibrous glass top portion 6d is bonded. The top portion is color impregnated throughout so that, as the fibrous glass coating wears away, its coloring will not be obliterated and removed, thus giving the marker the attribute of long life. The thickness of the marker 6 is substantially the same thickness as the floor blocks 5 so that the top surface of marker 6 will be flush with the floor surface when inlaid in the street among the blocks.

The marker thus formed of laminated plywood topped by a color impregnated fibrous glass coating has the important advantages of great structural integrity and wearability. The marker being structurally strong can bear heavy trafiic, and being flexible can withstand twisting such as when a heavy, unequally distributed force is applied thereto. Further, the unitary markers are easily and swiftly installed and removed simply by substituting them for existing floor blocks, thus saving many manhours with a minimum disruption of traffic.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such modifications and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A travelled fioor surface having at least one informational marker inlaid therein, comprising in combination:

a floor formed of a plurality of substantially identical rectilinear blocks,

the length and width of each block being multiples of one another, each block having substantially the same thickness; and a unitary structurally integral informational marker inlaid among said blocks,

said informational marker having overall length and width dimensions which are multiples of the length and width dimensions of said blocks, the thickness of said informational marker being substantially the same as the thickness of said blocks,

said informational marker in the dimension of thickness comprising a plurality of laminae and glass cap bonded to the remainder of the informational marker.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Otterstrom 50-456 X 10 Hunt 941.5 OBrien 94--1.5

Hunter 94-1.5

4 3/ 1941 Malarkey 20-91 7/1941 Fox et a1 2091 1/1945 Schwartz 94-15 8/ 1945 Guenther 50--100 X 9/1947 Collins 154-45.9 12/ 1949 Kahr 2075 3/1951 Rownd 9411 FOREIGN PATENTS 12/ 1893 Great Britain.

1906 Norway.

1/ 1956 Switzerland.

JACOB L. NACKENOFF Primary Examiner. 

1. A TRAVELLED FLOOR SURFACE HAVING AT LEAST ONE INFORMATIONAL MARKER INLAID THEREIN, COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: A FLOOR FORMED OF A PLURALITY OF SUBSTANTIALLY IDENTICAL RECTILINEAR BLOCKS, THE LENGTH AND WIDTH OF EACH BLOCK BEING MULTIPLES OF ONE ANOTHER, EACH BLOCK HAVING SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME THICKNESS; AND A UNITARY STRUCTURALLY INTEGRAL INFORMATIONAL MARKER INLAID AMONG SAID BLOCKS, SAID INFORMATIONAL MARKER HAVING OVERALL LENGTH AND WIDTH DIMENSIONS WHICH ARE MULTIPLES OF THE LENGTH AND WIDTH DIMENSIONS OF SAID BLOCKS, THE THICKNESS OF SAID INFORMATIONAL MARKER BEING SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE THICKNESS OF SAID BLOCKS, SAID INFORMATIONAL MARKER IN THE DIMENSION OF THICKNESS COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF LAMINAE AND HAVING A WEAR RESISTANT SURFACE ON THE UPPERMOST LAMINA THEREOF. 